Having been selected to exhibit within the European Pavilion at BIO 2022 & 2023, in the context of the EIC Overseas Trade Fairs (OTF) Programme 2.0, ZeClinics developed remarkable business follow-ups with significant leads and industry leaders. The Sales & Account Manager of ZeClinics, Daniel Caballero Diaz, describes the positive experience stemming from the participation in the international trade fairs and shares insightful tips for a successful presence at high-level business events.
What is the business impact created following your participation in the trade fair? Is there any milestone achievement to announce?
DCD: At BIO International Convention, we generated leads from several meeting schedules through the partnering system, including spontaneous visitors that came to our booth interested in our services and capabilities. Since our sales cycle is longer than 6 months, we are still evaluating how many of the current conversations will be materialised into a service.
Our involvement at the event has been fruitful also in establishing our model as an alternative to animal testing and having business meetings with collaborators and current clients.
To what extent OTF 2.0 helped you in achieving your organisation goals and business growth?
DCD: One of ZeClinics main objectives is to grow sales in North America in the next 2 years. To that end, the EIC OTF Programme 2.0 has allowed us to maximise our visibility in the North by subsidising our participation in BIO 2023 with a booth and by increasing the confidence of prospective customers, (since we have been selected to participate in the programme). In addition, we gained access and visibility to European companies, which might also be interested in our services.
From your experience with OTF 2.0, what business aspects do you think exhibitors should consider when preparing for tradeshows, both locally and internationally?
DCD: The aim for attending BIO International Convention might be different for each participant. Nonetheless, we believe that independently of the aim of the company to participate, the partnering tool is a very powerful resource to establish initial connections and should be well prepared and used for several weeks until the event starts. For that, it is important to plan well in advance and:
● Generate a comprehensive partnering profile, so that it is easy to understand what your objectives are. Adding flyers or other visual information is of added value.
● Identify companies and leads of interest.
● Early request of meetings, with a targeted message, instead of a general message sent to all the leads.
I believe it is also important to generate and bring supporting material to explain to attendees the reason behind the participation at the fair (service/product brochures, company background and competitive advantages etc.).
What are your ambitions and future expectations for the company after OTF 2.0?
DCD: We have identified some areas we would like to enhance and expand for our services, so we can add more value to our existing clients and acquire new ones.
Finally, could you offer any additional tips to prospective applicants?
DCD: Identifying the objective to participate in the event is very important and defining some internal KPIs to evaluate the participation and be able to implement corrective measures for future participations.
About ZeClinics
ZeClinics is a contract research organization based in Spain, offering a diverse repertoire of highly customisable preclinical services, using zebrafish. The company provides its clients with a range of in vivo safety and efficacy assessments and makes available CRISPR technology to develop genetic models mimicking human diseases. ZeClinics mission is to accelerate drug and target discovery and to increase the value of early stage R&D process with zebrafish. It challenges the discovery process by combining experience in zebrafish biology with lab automation and artificial intelligence.
About BIO
BIO represents more than 1100 biotechnology companies, academic institutions, biotechnology centres and related organisations across the United States and in more than 30 countries. BIO brings together a wide spectrum of life science and application, including drug discovery, biomanufacturing, genomics, biofuels, nanotechnology and cell therapy.
The prestigious trade fair entails many interactive sessions and unparalleled networking opportunities with 16 000+ attendees from 67 countries, combining world premieres and live demonstrations of products with exciting business partnerships.
About the EIC Overseas Trade Fairs Programme 2.0
The EIC Overseas Trade Fairs (OTF) Programme 2.0 supports EIC Awardees to promote their commercialisation strategy in foreign markets and leverage business opportunities at the 15 most popular trade fairs, strengthening the EU innovation brand around the world. Selected EIC-funded SMEs, start-ups and scale-ups from EU Member States and associated countries have access to the Programme.
Check EIC OTF Programme 2.0 for additional information. For stories, open calls and events, you may also visit the EIC Community Platform.
To follow the latest news and learn more about getting involved, please visit the EIC’s official social media accounts on Twitter and LinkedIn.
DISCLAIMER: This information is provided in the interest of knowledge sharing and should not be interpreted as the official view of the European Commission, or any other organisation.